Category Archives: Human rights

This particular article posted in the Guest column by News24, is about the aftermath of abuse. The headline asks, “when is it okay to share another’s story?” This is an interesting article to read because we always try to encourage the victims of abuse to speak out, but we never concern ourselves about it being okay to share someone else’s story.

For those victims who are lucky enough to escape their situation or even for those who were not it is important that everyone come together to we lead lives of those who bare a substantive amount of fear. Because as women, we never know whether we are even safe from being taken under the raft of an abuser or a rapist, we must stand together. For those who cannot speak, someone has to speak for them because we cannot continue to hide if we want to see a change.

So, my question to you guys is, when is it okay to speak out? When will enough be enough?

City Press. News24. Aftermath of abuse: When is it okay to share another’s story?. May 27, 2018. <https://www.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/aftermath-of-abuse-when-is-it-okay-to-share-anothers-story-20180527>. June 14, 2018.

Lulabel Seitz said that she was told by her administrators to not speak about her or other students sexual assault experiences in high school. Almost scared away she decided to still speak on sexual assault during her valedictorian speech. Her microphone was then cut off because the school said that her speech, “wouldn’t help”. When her sexual assault happened the school did nothing and would not comment on cutting off her microphone.

This video was released on May 15th, for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The video begins with audio of several reports of anti-LGBTQ violence from around the world. It serves as a reminder that in various parts of the world LGBTQ people are still the targets of prejudice and violence. The Pride Shield was created to show that if we stand together we can end the violence. It consists of 193 pride flags, one for every country in the world.

I believe the Pride Shield is an interesting concept and effectively symbolizes a solution to ending the violence. Imagine if all 193 countries took a stand against anti-LGBTQ violence, as the flags symbolically do in the video.

Do you believe the Pride Shield could ever be implemented? What cultural obstacles would we face if we tried to unite all 193 countries against anti-LGBTQ violence?

According to this article submitted to CNN news by Julie Guinan, in 1996 there was an agreement that was reached between the insurgents and the government. But after that agreement came a terrorizing backlash of immunity and discrimination. Many of men in the military began to commit cruel and unusual crimes against these women and returned to society without any form of regret or punishment.

From then until today many of those who remain in power still have not changed the way they view and treat women. Because Guatemala is a patriarchal society these women are forced to suffer a continuing cycle of violence. Most of these cases never even make it to court and also according to this article, 20 years from 1996 the rates of violent crimes like these are higher in Guatemala than before.

Why is it fair to these men that they continue to kill, rape torture and humiliate these women who are vulnerable because of war? Why aren’t there any establishments being set up to support these women?

For the past couple of years, there has been a hate group called incel that promotes violence against women. The incel group started on various forms such as 4chan, reddit, etc. to increase awareness that women should give them sex. This group can be of any age range, as long as their males and have the same “issue”.These other issues would include rape, assault, and femicide. As stated before, this group’s main goal is to harm women because women are depriving these men of sex. There have been various attacks towards women, by this group, for years. The most recent was in Toronto in April. Fortunately, Reddit eventually banned this group because of what it stood for. However, this movement is still out and is spreading due to the rise of feminists and other women right’s movements.

Let me just point out that this is the entire reason why women activists groups exist. Enough is enough with violence. It makes no sense that women have to be in danger because of sexists. This is also why the debate against women and violence still exists, because of men like this. Women and men will get nowhere as long as senseless groups like Incel exist. Just for an update, I also read that this group is now on the “darknet” and have had members successfully carry out their hatred towards women.

Immediately after I read the headline I bursted out into laughter. I couldn’t help but imagining myself entering this party similar to how Sam from Dear White People entered the blackface party at her school. Receiving an invitation to an event like this is almost like a spat to the face, like, are you serious? The whole concept of this party makes me uncomfortable. At least they got $10 to order a single drink. Glad to know that’s how much value they place on us.

Dearden, Lizzie. The Independent. Male rape, harassment and domestic abuse to be tackled by new government drive. September 06, 2017. Independent Digital News and Media. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/male-rape-sexual-violence-domestic-abuse-violence-against-women-cps-vawg-prosecutors-help-support-a7931956.html. May 21, 2018.

Author, Lizzie Dearden, presents a fairly peculiar circumstance where the males are victims of sexual harassment in the workplace. In this article written on September 6th, 2017, Dearden wrote that the government introduced a new drive to, “better help male victims of rape, domestic and sexual abuse and bring perpetrators to justice” (Dearden, 2017). Gender‐based violence is usually something that is committed against women and it affects women disproportionately. Violence against women is understood as a violation of human rights and a clear example of discrimination however, for the government to just come up with a “new drive” for males who experience rape, sexual abuse and etc is just flabbergasting.

So many of the women’s cases go unreported because of their fear to be judged or punished for already experiencing punishment and men are being rewarded justice for being treated in the same ways. Dearden stated, “regardless of a person’s gender, these crimes have a significant and distressing impact on the victim” so, wouldn’t it be fair for women to be able to receive the same amount of justice for being attacked as well (Dearden, 2017)? Or is it that women will continue to suffer in this patriarchal society due to the government’s lack of ability to ensure the safety of all minorities.

Cornell student took off her clothes during her thesis presentation after her professor commented that her shorts were too short. Some students supported the professor saying that it wasn’t a matter of the shorts being inappropriate due to length, but rather that wearing the denim shorts was unprofessional. Letitia Chai said she felt that she was being forced to change her appearance to make others feel comfortable. During her thesis she asked others to join her as she stripped her clothing to reveal that she was simply another person of the human race and will not tolerate acts of hatred against her. Many students also took off items of clothing to join her in protest. The professor later stated that she does not ” tell students what to wear, nor define for them what appropriate attire is”.

Would this same comment be made if a male student wore the same button up and denim shorts? Do you think that the length of her shorts was an issue because people would “find it distracting”? Is this a matter of professionalism or a true discriminatory judgement based on the professor’s comment?

In 2013 it was reported that Israel’s African female refugee population was given no option but to take the depo shot as a form of birth control. The idea was to forcibly keep the population in control. The article in from 2018 brings up the murmurings that from the U.S. recent involvement with Israel the refugee’s may be forced to leave the country.

This article brought up a long argument that I have had with my doctor and my friends have had with theirs, how in control are we as women over reproduction? Either through lack of education, lack of resources, or my favorite argument “you’ll change your mind and want kids later.” These women had their control taken from them and it is unclear if they even understood all the ramifications of taking that particular form of birth control.

My question is do you believe they should have given the refugees an educated choice to take the birth control(which is every 12weeks and can take up to a year to fully exit the system) or brought up safe sex practices to let women have the choice to have a family when they want?

Ok guys, this topic really irritates me. I have seen so many news channels and media coverage for the royal wedding that leaves me feeling like, “Am I suppose to care?”. In my theories class this past fall we had to present a current event of our interest to the class, which would start a conversation amongst the whole class. Me being me, I choose to cover the topic of sex trafficking and slavery that was happening in Libya currently. Once I finished my spiel on how migrants were leaving parts of Africa headed towards Europe just to get captured crossing the Mediterranean Sea and sold into modern day slavery, I expected the class to be willing to engage in dialogue. Wishful thinking. Instead, the person after me switched the topic to the royal engagement, and wanted to talk about how Megan was a biracial. Considering that topic was apart of pop culture, almost the whole classroom was engaged. Get a grip guys! The royal family does not care about! We need to be more concerned about the innocent people who are being forced into slavery than a royal racist family!